Rapture
by alecsangryface
Summary: "Why are you so cold, my love?" Her laughter is humourless.
**A/N: I think Camille has one of the most interesting backstories in the entire series and I would love to see it explored more. So here's one of many thoughts I've had about her past and how she's come to be the way she is. Hope you enjoy 3**

"Why are you so cold, my love?"

Her laughter is humourless. Ralf does not even know the half of it. She wished she could be as cold as the world saw her, as unyielding and as strong. There was an emptiness to her, but it was certainly not unfeeling. It was the last shred of her humanity that she wished she could let it go. But to let go of the emptiness would be to let go of all the memories of her mortal life. Her mother, her father, her husband. She couldn't.

 _Camille's hair floated around her face, the boy chasing her lost in her vision as it did so. She stumbled her way to the top of the mossy green hill, feet hitting dried roots and kicking up half decayed leaves, such messiness for a perfect moment. She was suddenly knocked to the floor, a warm, hard weight settling over her back; laughter bubbling in their chests._

" _Erik! Mother will be so upset with me when she sees such a muddy dress" She batted the boy away from her when his laughter would not subside enough for him to release her from her grassy prison. She looked down at her dress in despair, the beautiful yellow was tarnished with an ugly brown stain that was sure to remain there forever._

" _Camille, you must know no one could ever be upset with you. You are far too good and beautiful to warrant such a feeling" Erik had shifted to sit on his knees, grasping her hands in a way that was not befitting for their courtship – as if any of the day had been befitting anyway, "Your beauty may lead to wars but never to upset. The happiest warriors to ever die, if ever I knew such men"_

 _Camille blushed as she always did around Erik, he would always say the sweetest things that made her feel like she was the entire world. If it was anyone else other than him that said those things, Camille would have started running long ago._

" _She will be most upset with you then! Imagine what they will think about this courtship, what will the elders say?" Camille was in despair. She had been waiting seventeen patient years for a young man to ask to court her, and she was most pleased that it had been Erik – for he was the most wonderful man she had ever had the privilege of meeting - but if the elders thought that it wasn't right they could revoke their approval at any moment. Camille would be heartbroken if that happened._

" _The elders do not matter, my dear" He tenderly cupped her chin to turn her to face him. She was shocked by the intensity of his eyes – his beautiful green eyes that shone in the sunlight like emerald jewels – he had her locked in by the sheer force of it, "I would run away and marry you now if I did not want to dishonour you. You deserve only the best, my love"_

She would not allow herself to cry as she contemplated the memories that fed the black hole inside her. Ralf was the first person since her transformation that made her feel warmth. He reminded her so much of her old life it was almost as if everyone was still with her.

 _Camille was as nervous as she had ever been. She knew that just beyond the doors of the church, Erik was waiting for her, waiting to start the rest of their lives together, and yet there was something that was keeping her on the wrong side. Her father nudged her elbow, offering his own arm to lead her down the aisle and everything was suddenly real._

" _I'm so happy for you, Camille" He whispered voice thick with repressed tears. Camille knew she would be unable to stop crying then. Her father was not an emotional man, he did not express anything beyond on a grunt. Yet here he was almost crying. It meant the world to Camille that he cared, that he liked Erik and that he was happy. Seeing her loved ones happy was the only wish she had for her life._

She stopped wishing for the memories to leave her. She doesn't sleep so they come to her as hallucinations, as real as the day she lived them and still just as painful. Ralf lay next to her completely oblivious to her turmoil.

" _Beauty that could start wars" was the final thing she heard before her neck was snapped and her world went dark. She was awoken later by a suffocating pressure over her and a hunger that brought tears to her eyes. She clawed at the dense soil above her until it was actually air that was surrounding her rather than dirt._

" _Hello again Camille dear" She couldn't hone in on the voice, too consumed by her desperate need to feed. She drank dry the body pushed in front of her, taking a sick sort of pleasure hearing the scream as she sank her fangs into the warm neck. The human part of her told her to be terrified of such glee._

" _What have you done to me?" She asked staring at her blood stained hands in horror. Her eyes drifted past her hands to the corpse at her feet._

 _Erik._

 _She collapsed to her knees, hands hovering over her husband in the hope that she could do something. It was clear that she couldn't. He would never grace the world with his laughter again. He would never get to own the stupid cow they had fought over so many times. He would never see the children they were going to raise together. And it was all her fault._

" _I have made you better. You will thank me one day" She could not act on the anger that she felt because her grief was overwhelming. She cried blood as she prayed to her God for forgiveness. She prayed for Erik's soul. She prayed until she could no more make the words._

 _It took centuries of learning to adapt, learning to manipulate and control before she could have her revenge. The beast that turned her hadn't changed in the slightest, he still had a permanent sneer and carried himself like he was owed the world. Camille took great pleasure in hearing his screams as he slowly burned to death._

"I love you Camille" Ralf whispers to her in his half asleep state, he flings an arm over her stomach and burrows his cold nose into her even colder neck, breathing her in. Camille smiles for the first time in a long time. Ralf was going to be her undoing but she was too greedy to care about her future when she felt like this. There would come a time when happiness was arbitrary and all other emotions along with it, but for now it was all Camille could do to hold on with white knuckles. She would allow herself this one last service before she succumbed to the emptiness.


End file.
